Will
by Kanthia
Summary: Twenty years after the end of their journey, they begin to grow old and one by one pass away. It isn't until it's too late that those left living realize what little time they have left together. [complete]
1. Inheritance

This is **Will**.

I've read a fair share of Tales of Symphonia fanfiction now, and many that deal with the circumstances of the eight dreamers after the death of Yggdrasill. I'd like to imagine that Will isn't like many of them. Written as a panacea to help me deal with a good friend moving away, it's laden with character death and a nice heaping of sadness. Please read and review, but do remember to give yourself a nice hug afterwards.

Like many things, Will stemmed from something innocent- a Z-Skit conversation I happened to watch during our trials in the Torent Forest.

**CONTAINS HEAVY SPOILERS.  
**

* * *

**Will  
**  
_/one by one, we all must go into the realm eternal_

* * *

**Fragment 1:  
Inheritance**

x x x**  
**

Lloyd was the last to go. Well, Lloyd and Colette, really.

Regal was the first. It was a combination of his old age and a persistent infection he had picked up in prison; he died at the young (relative to most) age of fifty, rashes from old chains still staining his wrists. Many of the businessmen of Tethe'alla and even some of those better-educated ones from Sylvarant had shown up to his funeral. Honouring his last wish, he was buried on the no longer lonely rooftop of the Lazareno Company Headquarters right beside the gravestone of the woman rumoured to be his lover.

It had been a sad day; rather sunny out but the beaches were devoid of their usual joy-makers. Lazareno's only manufactured product was happiness and it wavered that day, from the mist of morning to the last lonely call of night.

His funeral was too gaudy for any of the tattered seven's tastes. There were bands playing gloomy melodies and rows of women throwing flower petals in the air as if they cared about the convict, not just the president.

They stood at the front, the seven of them, in all their beautiful creeds and from all walks of life. The noise died like the end of daytime; gentle and horrible. They said what little they could manage in front of so many people and life went on.

They slept together in the hotel in Altamira that night for the first time in twenty years. They had kept in contact save for Lloyd and Colette who were strained at best, beginning to slip into the indexes and back pages of newspapers, and it might have been good to see their faces again if it wasn't in such a tragic situation.

Sheena attempted to make conversation.

"Who…who'll take over the company?"

Raine attempted to fill the silence.

"George, I believe. He's a…good man. It'll do well."

Lloyd was never one to beat around the bush.

"I've missed you, guys."

And how many years! They sat in a circle in the lovely room as though there was a fire in the middle of them spinning stories of old fairy tales like Angel Toxicosis.

Sheena was in her prime now, a passionate and wise chieftain presentable as she was beautiful- time had been kind to her, and though she was closer to forty than thirty years of age she had yet to show it. The work of creating harmony between worlds torn together kept her name on the lips of men and elves alike. Sheena and Regal had been the most public of the Eight-

It was odd to hear them spoken of like that. The religious texts called them the Eight that Battled the Heavens, but some things are so much easier on the tongue.

For a Summoner of thirty-six years, it should have been nothing but joy to be around old friends. But she was used to being one of them, someone just about their age, and there was similarity no longer. Genis felt like he understood.

Of those who remained it was easy enough to understand why he, his sister and Zelos had not aged. There was half enough to stop what tide carries all men away into the dark; for Presea it was almost as if her time had slowed, but still ran as the power of the Crystal bled through. Twenty years had touched her but seven. She sat silent as the innocence she had once been, beautiful as the wretched wind that turns to stone. Colette suffered a similar illness, for the vessel of the Goddess should live until the spirits wane. There was an uncomfortable silence as all eyes turned to the gentlest of idealists.

"Mom's Exsphere," he said, in the kind of voice that reminded everyone that he, too, had grown old.

He could have been twenty-five years of age.

It was a good night, better than anyone could remember having in a long while- stories traded, both new and old. The subject of the Holy Search for the Exspheres (something which everyone seemed to know of but not about) came up. Lloyd gave his first real grin and lapsed into a rather embellished tale of his heroic exploits along with his beautiful and talented Chosen, who added in her own details from time to time about how the Gold Dragon was _this_ big, and how the sardonyx shone just like _this, _and how the stars poured down from the heavens with such a beautiful silence like the dawn of time.

They talked for hours about anything they could remember. Of forgotten qualms, of chaste romances and skulls with long arms who danced until the origin was reborn. Of seals that were men and women who waited to tell tales none would dare listen to. Of dances, of cold nights, of times when angels came down from the heavens to guide five lonely voices to a tower that wasn't real, playing a façade of families and love and hope.

Of gentle dreamers, of cheerful saviors, of lonely siblings left to rot where the moon shines. Of ageless sinners burdened with guilt. Of clumsy assassins who forgot their limits. Of lost knights with nothing to live for, of the most innocent whose time fled like death itself, of those consumed by the weight of crimes they were forced into--

Of the time when they were all so incomplete and happy.

Back through horrors and sweet joy and emotions long forgotten, there was a time when searching a seal was all that mattered to save everything and the moon had a name that was only a name and not lives destroyed as the screw turned. Tears came and went, laughter rolled like lambs and it was almost like it used to be.

It was late in the evening by the time they rested their weary hearts. Genis had picked a bed between Lloyd and Presea as he used to and everyone said their good-nights. They fell to the shores of sleep soon after.

The silent halfling lay awake but dreaming for a while, until the coughing started. It began slowly, and he thought that she was simply struggling with something caught in her throat. As the sobs started he wondered if it was instead emotion caught there, but when she did not stop he began to worry.

He rolled out of bed, saw Presea's white face, and immediately raised a cry that brought the five remaining to her bedside.

As much as she knew about unicorns and purgatories, Raine could not heal a broken heart.

x x x

"…To mourn the loss of a beloved teammate, a dutiful subject, and the most innocent, lonely of women." Kate bowed her head low, the scent of charred angel wings carrying through the ruins of Ozette. Presea was buried beside the father she had left out of too many years of her life, the axe she swore to wield in his place resting on her gravestone. It had finally shattered as the threads that held her alive snapped. 

There were eight people present, and Kate was one of them. There was a long and lost silence that filled their heavy spirits with nothing but nothing. Slowly, Lloyd stepped forward and placed a small chipped dagger on her grave. He hadn't eaten since the empty soul passed away, and there were unspoken doubts that he was still human.

"Goodbye," he said, "Presea, our friend."

There was nothing else they could say. Genis was the first to sob, and at that moment the emotional pain of losing two dear friends hit all of them at once, and they cried until the stars themselves shielded their eyes from so much hurt.

They parted ways that night, feeling the space between.

x x x

The years came and went with a deafening silence. With the Exspheres destroyed, news of Lloyd's travels all but disappeared from the gossip of townsfolk. Genis returned to his studies in what was now Sylvarant's largest library, built up from the ashes of his own home. Raine accompanied him from time to time when she was not conducting hands-on research. Her papers were becoming increasingly popular even as they lost her original passion; now that she knew where the moon shone when it was full, the mysteries that she held dear to her faded without majesty.

To Genis, that old, familiar scent of Iselia was but rose petals in the wind charred with neglect. It was often that he'd find himself awake at night unable to concentrate on the ancient hammer of Godly Thunder, and suddenly the loneliness would become suffocating.

The memories would come back to him, surging like a waterfall of wind. It was the greatest of adventures- days and nights together, no two experiences quite the same; fighting, eating, enjoying time together. Growing closer and closer together. Never forgetting that the next sunrise could be your very last.

Long nights ran forever, and often he would lie amidst his useless knowledge crying soundlessly for all that had been and all that he had lost.

x x x

_This piece of fanwork was not originally written in five parts. It was intended to be a one-shot, written over a period of seven months. However, I felt it would be a good idea to break it up so as to not destroy my brain trying to reread the whole thing at once. You must forgive me._

_I would greatly appreciate your feedback._

_Word Count: 1 515_


	2. Birthright

**Fragment 2:  
Birthright**

x x x

Unexpectedly, Lloyd showed up one day at the borders of Iselia. His banishment had long been waved, but old habits die hard; he would never set foot in the town of his upbringing ever again, no matter how much he was pleaded.

As it turned out, Iselia and the nearby Dwarven house had become somewhat of a tourist attraction, though there was little to see. For many people just standing on the same earth the Chosen of Sylvarant and Lloyd of the Holy Pilgrimage had once stood on was enough to make the trip worth it. Sometimes you could even meet her when she came out of the nearby Tower of the Beginnings, but only sometimes; she preferred to be alone.

But those were minor details. What mattered was that one day the town was alight with excited chatter and all creeds of sentience crowded its entrance. Raine called Genis out of the library, silencing his protests with news that Lloyd had come to visit for the first time since their parting in Ozette fifteen years ago. It was then that she parted to find Colette, who was spending more and more time in the company of the fading Dirk.

Shutting his old books, Genis sprinted with energy he had long forgotten for the town gates. He pushed his way through the denizens of young women clamoring and surrounding the world's Savior. What waited for him there was something slightly out of the ordinary.

Lloyd, who was now fifty-one years of age, hadn't aged a day since that long-remembered day in Altamira. He looked to be still twenty-five as though time had stayed its mighty fist; Genis considered fathers and mothers and wondered how strong the blood of angels could be.

Perhaps there were things in him more powerful than his mother's tears.

He smiled brightly and jumped into Lloyd's young arms, forgetting about old things for a moment. They were different now, lower than he remembered and cold and hard as ironwood. He remembered Lloyd's old arms well. They weren't as home as they used to be, and it made him worry.

"You've grown," Lloyd said, almost smiling. There was a hint of his father in his voice creeping down the octave. "Used to come up to my waist. Have you been eating enough?"

Genis was stunned by the sudden question, and reflected that he was, in fact, a late bloomer. He'd quietly shot up to a respectable five and a half feet over the course of fifteen years; unlike his sister who had been her height for most of his life, the young Sage was a testament to what long future he had sitting in front of him. "Yeah, I think," he said, lying. "Why're you here, anyways?"

The young angel sighed and ran a hand through his hair. "Luin," he said. "Have you heard about it?"

Genis couldn't say.

"They're completely rebuilt now, and wanted to get a good name for themselves again- selling drinking water, of all things." Genis wondered how long it had been since his friend's metabolism slowed to an almost halt. "Anyways, a last resurgence of the old Desian movement got to it. Where is Raine, by the way?"

"Off with Colette, I think. So what happened?"

Lloyd paused for the longest moment. "Mizuho and Luin have been really close since Sheena's statue was built. Mizuho bought Luin's first shipment-"

Raine appeared from the direction of Dirk's house with the Chosen at her side.

"-Sheena tried it first and noticed that it was poisoned, but it was too late. She passed away yesterday morning."

x x x

The Eight had quietly slipped to Five, but they counted only for half of their old selves. The skies committed pathos and loosed a warm and grey drizzle over the overgrown Ossa Trail; there should have been a great argument over where she was to be given to the earth, but she had made up her mind in the long moments before she passed away.

Zelos was there. In a horrible twist of fate, he had been visiting Mizuho when the last will of the Desians carried its bitter spirit. His body was as unchanged as elven blood could promise, but his vigour was loosening.

They stepped forward one by one to offer their prayers. The entire population of Mizuho praised a strong, capable leader and diplomat whose greatest joy was in leading her people. Sybak congratulated a woman who dared to break boundaries. Meltokio honoured an unwelcome face that made herself welcomed.

Raine thanked a friend who laughed when she should have cried.

Genis thanked a friend who taught him everything that books couldn't.

Collette thanked a friend who knew what it meant to be resolute.

Lloyd thanked a friend who should have done what was right and killed them.

Zelos knelt and silently thanked a friend.

From the wind in the East, an old and lost Kuchinawa appeared with a lotus and a bell. He said nothing, leaving them on the lump of earth that was once a woman.

The wind that once summoned graceful light gently shook the weeping rain clouds and the sound of Corrine's bell rang for eternity sundered.

x x x

They slept in the home of the chieftain in Mizuho that night. There was no-one to fill the role, and whispers that none would ever fill it again with such a woman to live up to. Cities rose and fell like glass in a world without air- Sheena's sudden departure left behind confusion that would never be silent.

"I'm curious- as to what happened to the Summon Spirits," Raine said, mumbling, without even trying to sound curious.

"I'll go," Lloyd said. "I was getting tired of having nothing to do, running around and hiding. I'll make pacts with them. I'm all ready Origin's seal, and if the Summon Spirits rest for too long I'm worried that the Tree will wither."

"But Lloyd," Collette said while turning over in her bed and propping herself up on one elbow, "You said you'd come back to Iselia. We miss you."

"I'll come back." With the cool breeze of night, he was gone.

x x x

It was often that Genis would wonder where his time went. He began to see little bits of Presea in himself, a touch of Regal in his sister, an impurity casting brilliant violet shadows on Collette.

They weren't lively enough to return to Iselia. Heimdall took the three of them in with open arms. Colette never said she wanted arms to hold her and refused, trickling through their fingers like water and leaving before they even had a chance to say goodbye. It was as though she was off to chase the frayed edges of a dream and Genis couldn't blame her. He and his sister swallowed their pride and left the world of men behind.

It didn't last long. The news came from Meltokio seven days later.

x x x

Genis almost cried when he saw Zelos again. His memories had given him a vibrant pretender whose mask was almost perfect, and the man lying before him was none of those. He was emaciated and had the physical and metaphysical qualities of a shadow; it was his deathbed, and everyone knew but no-one dared realize.

His sister was drawn over him and struggled to do what she could. The room was too large for the four it contained- two half-elves, one outline of a Chosen and a certain bitter young lady- and Genis felt the space like it was solid mana.

"--Zelos," Raine said, dragging her brother back to the surface, "Oh, goodness, are you there?"

The Chosen who Wasn't opened his eyes and Genis wished he hadn't. There was a horrible space there, vacant as the place where his brethren lived in hiding with nothing but Birth to keep them in the air. He choked on tears he didn't know still hid in him.

"Ah, Profe-" Zelos coughed, harder than he should have been able to, and the sound filled the room- "-Professor, Brat, S-Seles."

"B-brother." The response from the quivering woman seemed to waver, like a person realizing for the first time that they were afraid.

Genis had never bothered to get to know Seles. She was barely even a passing memory, just a name mentioned off-handedly by Zelos when destiny became the iron sky above him once more. Perhaps now it was too late. She was old, much older than her brother in appearance and weighed down by the shadow she forgot to love.

"Seles." Zelos' voice was calm, much too calm. It was the voice of death. Genis could hear that little bit of Mithos in him again, just as he heard it in everyone. "Come h-here, let me see you."

The nature of the tragedy behind the swift degeneration of the Chosen had the entire nation of Tethe'alla-Sylvarant bewildered. In the span of seven long days he had lost his will to walk, to eat, to enjoy, to live-

"I've lived too long," he said. "T-too long. W-wonder if there's a s-s-special place in Hell for be-betrayers."

"Don't say that, Zelos-"

He tried to prop himself up on one elbow but was gently let down by Raine's fumbling hands. "Don't worry- 'm sure there's-" he coughed again, staining the pink sheets crimson with the end of something beautiful- "-hunnies in heaven. Maybe they'll l-let me go there, huh. Wonder who lives there. Not angels. Not angels- tell Lloyd I'm sorry- gonna see Presea, Sheena, mom— thank you—"

x x x

She found him by the Tree, tending to it with the love she was worried he had forgotten about. He seemed so human; it almost brought back her tears.

"Lloyd," she said, "Please- come back."

"I have nowhere to return to," he said as though it was the truth.

"You have Genis, and the Professor and Zelos-" she paused, as if she knew terror as it was occurring- "-and me- and what about Dirk? He's your _father_, Lloyd! He misses you! We all miss you!" Tears clung to her eyelashes. "I can't give us what we want, Lloyd, but didn't you once tell me that I should live my life the way I want?"

He paused for a long moment, and finally something inside him shifted. He smiled and knelt in front of her, one knee touching the most beautiful earth. In his outstretched hand was a tiny charm from the cold tongue of Tethe'alla- marred by a single arrow hole, it meant more to the two of them than the stars at night.

"Marry me, Collette Brunel," he whispered, and her eyes overflowed with tears.

x x x

There was an entire orchestra playing a horrible funeral march as they braved the pouring rain. It seemed as though the entire united nation had shown up to say their goodbyes- women crying rivers of mascara for the husband they had dreamed of, men muttering under their breaths as to why they were wasting their time honouring the death of a man given too much praise for something he was never allowed to do.

"You couldn't tie him down to one place," Lloyd whispered, his wings fully outstretched in a vibrant discord with the weather. "He was like water. You could never tell what he was really feeling."

One of his arms was around Colette's tiny waist in order to hold her close to him.

"He was very dear to us," she whispered. "I…feel like he's betrayed us again, and he'll rise out of his casket any second with a way to- a way to stop death."

"Reverse death." Raine's voice was flat. "You meant a way to reverse death, Colette." Genis stood by his sister, holding her hand tight in his; there was a cold feeling in his head as though cobwebs were taking up his emotions.

Fifty feet away from them in front of the crowd they were detached from, the current head of the United Church was making a bored speech praising the 'figurehead of the church, a vigilant member of the Eight who Railed Against the Forces of Hell'. History was being warped before their eyes and they didn't care.

"Only four of us left," Lloyd said. Collette sobbed and pressed her face into his chest. "It's like the Tethe'alla part of our journey has been erased. It's like we're back around the fire with Kratos the Mercenary talking about getting to Asgard to please Remiel and Colette's hiding the fact that she can't dream anymore."

"I feel…" Genis paused. "Every time I wake up, I hear Regal cooking breakfast over the cold embers and Zelos arguing with Sheena over something stupid and Presea chopping wood, and then I open my eyes and it's all over and I've lost them again- why is it over? Why did it have to _end_? I wish- I wish- where are we going to go, anyways? Nowhere feels like home anymore-"

Meltokio blurred into grays. Lloyd chewed on his lower lip. "I think that no matter where we go, we'll be far from our world."

x x x

_after all is said and done  
one and one still is one  
_

_Word Count: 2 184_


	3. Heritage

**Fragment 3:  
Heritage**

x x x**  
**

The four of them silently docked the lonely Riehards in Exire's cold embrace. They had decided with reason to never let each other out of their sights again; it seemed as though every time they parted somebody died for it.

The world below had become too hectic for them. There were cobwebs that needed cleaning and time that needed to be spent together, the four of them, desperately trying to pretend to be in the classroom again. It was a memory distant as a dream, Raine teaching those lies about Mithos and watching the window for the sign of a fake Oracle.

Genis stepped off of the old machine with the help of his sister's fumbling hands. She had started trembling constantly of late and hadn't spoken a word since Zelos' funeral; she wasn't built for despair like this.

He felt like a fugitive, clutching what few things mattered to him to his chest.

Lloyd pushed the aviators into the small storehouse. It was an unspoken hope that they would never have to be used again, though obviously they would- the four of them were drifters now, never staying too long in one place. It just happened to be that there were less and less places left for them to stay.

x x x

The air was cold and thin on the day that Lloyd Irving-Aurion and Colette Brunel were married. The Exire church was small but spacious like the hearts of those who attended it; invitations had been extended to George, to Dirk, to Frank, to anyone who remembered them for the people they were, but none could make arrangements to come. It was fair enough.

Raine wept in bittersweet happiness and Genis strode silently as they walked down the isle. He knew there would be a terrible and undeserved emptiness for the bride and groom whose parents were not able to walk them down the isle- but Lloyd was so handsome in his bright red suit and Colette so delicately beautiful in her white lace gown that for a moment they almost forgot their sadness.

"I always figured this day would come," whispered Raine. "Just- not like this. It's the most important marriage in the united world and nobody's here. Did we even get any of the invitations back?"

"George is bedridden," Genis mumbled. "They don't know how much longer he'll last. The Storyteller promised to record it- Yuan and what's left of the Renegades sent us their goodwill, Kate was held up in some experiment on an old victim of the Human Ranches, Neil is too busy rebuilding Palmacosta." He counted on his fingers. "Pietro couldn't come, he probably won't show his face after the contaminated water incident. Everyone is too old. Heimdall doesn't communicate with Exire, the new Mayor of Iselia won't leave his post and doesn't remember Lloyd anyways, Chocolat has grandchildren to raise and probably didn't want to have to show her kids the man who killed Marble-"

Raine looked away.

"-We didn't…get a reply from Dirk. Don't tell Lloyd. He's probably all ready figured it out."

x x x

There was a sliver of moonlight peeking in through the open window, teasing Lloyd's bare chest as Colette pulled herself closer to him. The bed creaked solemnly.

"I'm sorry," she said. "I know how much you wanted this."

"I didn't." He turned on his side and captured her face in his hands. "I thought about it before- you know, weighed the options. I'm not going to make you sacrifice any more, Colette. I don't want to put anybody through what I might have been forced into."

There was a long moment of silence. Lloyd ran a hand through his hair, afterwards bringing it down and letting it rest on her hand. With careful fortitude, he gathered her small frame in his arms- like the weeping sorcerer and broken professor, Colette had become too frail of late.

"When I die, I won't leave behind any secrets."

"Oh?" He looked into her eyes and found centuries of unhappy wanderers in them. "What made you think about that?"

"Nobody on our journey had secrets that we didn't find out. I was the only one, Lloyd, and I'm sorry. The whole time I was making lies and-"

"-Regal doesn't count, does he?" She tasted a hint of his father in him. "Everyone had secrets, Colette."

"Yes, but we found out about him…don't you remember? And he was only hiding it because of Presea." Her voice was wavering, almost as though she was broken somewhere. "Genis and the Professor did it to be safe. I just- I just didn't want you to hate me."

"Speaking of secrets, Sheena had one."

"Oh? I- um-"

"She told Zelos and I before she…passed away. People like getting things off of their chests, Colette. It's not a weakness."

"What…was it?"

He was still for too many lonely moments. She could feel tears gathering in her eyes as he placed his chin in the quiet space between her neck and shoulder.

"Korin," he said. There was a great sadness in the words. "They accidentally named it after her without knowing- it must have been so hard for her."

"Korin." The word hurt on her tongue. "Still, you…didn't have to do this for me. I'm really, really sorry."

He covered her lips with a cold finger, his other arm sneaking around the curve of her back. "Stop apologizing. It's for the best, the war is over. This cursed Aurion line ends with me."

x x x

"Congratulations," Mithos Yggdrasill said to him in a dream.

He opened his eyes carefully like a beast striking at the sky.

"We all figured it was only a matter of time until you got married." There was a hint of remorse in his voice; it bothered Lloyd to hear the proud angel speak with sadness. "She's beautiful if barren. Your father would be proud."

"You're talking to me in a dream." He pinched the skin on the inside of his elbow and let his wings out. "You're dead."

"Possibly. Lovely wings, by the way- it's a shame your father never got to see them."

Lloyd took a deep breath. "Why'd you do that to Colette?"

"It wasn't me, it was my sister. She couldn't either. We thought it was the unicorn at first- has Professor Raine married?"

"No. And before you ask, yes, Genis is fine."

"You lie."

"You lied to us."

"It was necessary." Within the space of a heartbeat, the nightmare before him was not the friendless child caught in the tides of war but the emotionless killer whose blonde hair cascaded in a river of cynical hatred. "You took everything from me- my followers, my sister, my world and finally my life. Try to have some sympathy."

"I won't. I'm not like you." His indignant judgment came with neither swords nor heavens. "Maybe it was just a coincidence before I knew who you really were, but I will never, ever-"

"Hush," Yggdrasill said as his voice dropped. "Believe it or not, I'm not here to antagonize you. I'm here to thank you, in a way. At least this way I may see my sister in a world without hate. Besides, there is someone who wants to see you."

From the shadows beneath the clouded angel, a figure shyly appeared. She was young- perhaps seven or eight years of age- with skin white and vulnerable as snow and hair a sleepy pastel green reaching down past her shoulders. She was dressed in a simple tunic made of very familiar fur, sucking her thumb and shaking with fear. As soon as she locked eyes with Lloyd, a great cry of happiness escaped her lips and she jumped with animal strength into his arms.

"…Damn," he said, holding her tight to his chest. He looked up to Mithos as the girl began chewing on his wings. "How'd…she get here? And to think I spent my whole life thinking she was a guy-"

"It was a strong wish of hers to have you see her in her final form before you passed away. You should know that Kratos gave her to me at first, before taking her with him four thousand years later when he left to go find that wretched woman you called your mother."

Lloyd's grip tightened. "Don't you dare go any further. Where is my mom, anyways?"

Yggdrasill shrugged. "It's your dream, not mine."

The girl in Lloyd's embrace wriggled to get comfortable. He relaxed his arms and she opened her mouth to let out a stream of nonsense- it could have been a whine. Lloyd smiled.

"Good to see you, Noishe," he said and woke up.

x x x

They were like lovely ghosts, clinging to one another as though without the stability afforded they would crumble to pieces. They lived in that relative quiet and happiness for five years until Colette got sick.

Genis noticed it first. There came a morning where she forgot to rise at dawn to afford water for the garden set around Maxwell's resting place, and he found her collapsed outside her home. Her forehead felt strangely cold to touch. He had nearly tripped over his feet racing to go tell Lloyd.

By the time the two of them had returned to the dwelling shared by angels, Raine had all ready begun the diagnosis. Colette was pinned down in the bed by layers of heavy sheets and a fire raged in the fireplace to no avail; she was shivering like the disciple of everlasting ice.

Lloyd wasted no time. As soon as they made eye contact, his wide with fear and hers wide with pain, he stripped down the covers to see her wavering crystal.

The Rune Crest was cracked.

"Didn't want you to know," Colette said, making a lot of sense in a few words.

Lloyd ran a hand through his hair. "What was it- Zircon, Mana Leaf Herb-"

"-Mana Fragment," Genis finished. "Derris-Kharlan is gone. Welgaia is destroyed."

"We have to try at least."

Raine looked up. "Lloyd is right. When Mithos-" They all paused for a moment and looked to the ground- "When Mithos destroyed the Tower of Salvation, its shattered pieces fell on Heimdall. We can look there. Look there, understand?" There was a hint of insanity in her voice. It ran in the family.

Colette ran warm with tears, drawing attention back to her dry skin bleached white.

"Let's go on an adventure," she said, weeping with every emotion at once. "One last time."

x x x

_every sound that i hear  
every thought that i fear  
tell me that i  
i was wrong  
i was wrong to let you go_

_Word Count: 1 751_


	4. Legacy

**Fragment 4:  
Legacy**

x x x

The world was seventy years colder since the end of their journey, and none of them had much to show for it but baggage. They wandered the unified land with small smiles and tall staves. Lloyd kept his swords sheathed, lest their brilliance accidentally unleash divine justice; Genis struggled to calm the massive torrent of mana he was so unused to feeling. His concentration had grown so immense that it was almost second nature to unleash the heavenly lightning with a backhand glance.

They gave up the Riehards in favour of inconspicuousness and wore cloaks close to their chests. Genis suggested they hire a wagon for the increasingly unwell young Chosen who protested the idea but eventually gave in- they got one with a dragon, just for old times' sake.

Lloyd's hair had grown long, eerily reminiscent of his father. It reminded Genis of why he loved Lloyd so much.

They journeyed well like the Chosens of Old, and Genis supposed it was good- he pretended Kratos was there, and wondered if everyone else felt like they should be seventy years younger. He considered casting fire balls instead of cyclones and tidal waves but Raine looked at him with those empty eyes and he lost the will to grow younger.

"Journey, journey," Colette mumbled through a veil of icy fever, "Oh maiden Spiritua who saves, thy humble servant asketh for thy blessing. Honour us with the special-"

Light and song rained down from the heavens onto the wind-wracked plains.

x x x

They stopped at a town being built near the Great Tree to rest, their journey so far fruitless. They weren't sure if they were trying anymore.

"Belladem," Lloyd casually read from the town's creaking sign. "We can stay here for the night, if you and Professor need to sleep."

"Let's go to the Great Tree." Genis' eyes fell upward. "Colette- well, um-"

"Yeah," said Lloyd in a flat, expressionless voice that betrayed everything he was feeling. "I checked earlier when she fell asleep. She's lost both legs and one of her arms."

The tears came terrifyingly quickly and Genis found his legs no longer able to hold him up. Raine came running over and caught him as he wailed, no longer even knowing or needing a reason why. She looked up to the stalwart half-angel. His gaze locked on the Tree in the distance, his eyes dark and his wings fully extended; who could have seen this part of him so many years ago?

"You've changed," she said.

"I know. I'm sorry."

x x x

It was dark by the time they decided to make their way into the town, cloaks drawn close- seventy years meant few humans would remember the old worlds, but the scattered Elves and Halflings were still looking out for them. It was a burden that they were not in the mood to bear.

Lloyd carried Colette, the Daughter of Angels, in his arms as though they were being married beneath the dusk-coloured moon again; the town was quiet but not yet slumbering. The brick-lined streets murmured with muted activity.

"I will protect this world with my own hands," said Colette as she shook awake. "Where are we?"

"We came to the surface." Lloyd's eyes were fixed on a point far away. She chewed on her bottom lip.

"Why?"

_To get you a Rune Crest,_ Genis imagined but shook his head and corrected his thoughts before saying something so silly. "We came to see the Great Tree. It's been too many years since we've seen Tabatha, so Raine thought it would be good to pay our respects."

Lloyd and Raine stopped abruptly, causing Genis to refocus his attention forward. Sitting in the centre of the town, surrounded by streetlamps that seemed to lean in towards it, was a large pool of water. The stones around it were raised and benches lined its rim, so Colette found herself gently placed in a seated position as the three of them looked and wondered.

The water was tinted green, a clouded cerulean that seemed familiar.

"This is from Iselia Forest, isn't it?" Lloyd ran a hand through his hair. "I remember Dirk having it behind the house."

"If I recall, he was experimenting with algae that produced metallic oxides. His copper batch was the most successful, but he was never able to actually process a solid metal."

From the shadows outside the lamps, a young woman appeared. She was about twenty years of age (should she be human- it was harder and harder to tell these days as the blood of elves became more scattered) wearing a dress of yellow and brown. Her hair was a darker shade of blonde, but if it weren't for that she could have been-

"Chocolat," said Colette as though waking from slumber, "Chocolat, is that you?"

The resemblance was stunning, and she had that same home-grown beauty, but some things are impossible.

"Chocolat?" The girl giggled. "My name is Marzipan. They both sound yummy, don't they?" She smoothed out her skirt. "Chocolat was my grandmother."

"Oh." Genis bit his tongue, not knowing what was proper to say. "We...knew of her. From the- the Ranch near Iselia."

"Uh-huh. They say that she was taken to a Half-Elf Ranch because of her famous beauty, but Lloyd Irving the Hero of Eternity- or was that the Hero of Ages?- anyways, the hero Lloyd Irving came and saved her from the hands of the Half-Elves, and they married and had Mama before he disappeared into the heavens so many years ago. I have the blood of that hero flowing in me."

There was a period of awkward silence.

"Anyways," she said in a far cry from delicacy, "That's why I'm responsible for the pool." She stepped into the light, revealing that her hair was indeed blonde and that her dress was some kind of simple ceremonial outfit.

"About the pool," Lloyd said.

"Right." She stepped up to it. "It's sacred water from the Iselia Forest, believed to be where Lloyd Irving was born from an angel and a mortal woman. It was only recently that we could get it here because a fanatical Dwarf was convinced he was Lloyd's father and that the water was his, but thankfully he passed away."

Lloyd visibly stiffened. Genis reached over and put a hand on his friend's back in what could have been a compassionate gesture, but between them was a reminder that the world wasn't ready to see the half-angel's wings again.

"…In the scriptures of the Earth Goddess Martel, his name has meaning- 'Lloyd' means 'Sacred', 'Irving' for 'Green Water'. Some day when the world needs a hero, he'll come out of the sacred green water and save us all again. That's what they tell me to say, anyway. Would you like to make a donation?"

"Do you take the name Irving, or Aurion?" Lloyd's voice was low and strained. Genis couldn't remember the last time he had seen his friend this angry. "Did you even stop to think about the name of the Dwarf who lived in that house?"

"Oh- excuse me. It was rude of me to not give my name," the young woman replied, totally missing the point. "We take Grandma's name, Alvein. My name is Marzipan Alvein. Is something wrong? Sir, don't step into the water! It's sacred! Sir-"

"The world has no need for old heroes," Lloyd said in a terribly sorry way as he shook off his cloak and let it fall into the pool at his feet. "And hopefully, it will never need heroes again."

By the time she understood who they were, they were all ready gone.

x x x

"It won't be safe," said Genis. "They know that we're here. Are you sure that you want that?"

"It's fine." They pushed through the thick underbrush of the forest, wondering how so much had managed to grow in so little time. "I was…mad. Mad that they would do that to Dad, and that they thought Chocolat- and I- and they called me a hero. I don't know anymore."

Colette stirred in his arms, delirious and dreaming with her eyes warm and gray. "To err is human, Lloyd," she said, and there was confident finality in her voice. "To forgive is divine."

As the last words passed her parched lips, they came into a clearing and the Great Tree Yggdrasill shined down in all its terribly beautiful glory like angels and demons together. The pure and concentrated mana of the Tree wept down on them as though it was solid; unhindered by obstacles, Colette's Chronic Angelus Crystallus Inofficium gave a surge of brilliance and she turned to stone.

She died carrying the last and greatest sacrifice she would be burdened with- after Martel's spirit had flooded her body so many years ago, she had lost the ability to bear children.

And the stars, be they burning, paused in their mighty slumber and one by one quietly went to sleep.

x x x

It was quiet for a long, long time.

Eventually, Genis remembered to cry.

x x x

_i've been waiting for so long  
it's starting to kill me  
what do i have to do  
_

_Word Count: 1 471 _


	5. Will

**Fragment 5:  
Will**

x x x

The sun came up and he couldn't care less. He was broken and missing part of him, and though he knew it was coming he couldn't bear thinking of what he had just lost.

"I got mad," Lloyd said, cold as dew with his wings a tribute to the rising sun. "I got mad and they took her from me. She was too kind for this world."

Martel fell from the branches of her brother and found the three of them; Lloyd staring at the stone corpse of his wife with a back so straight and a face void of feeling, Genis with tears streaming from his eyes wide open, Raine choking on the ground in a fistful of emotion.

There wasn't much she could do, as guardian of the Tree. So she took the body with her: an apology.

x x x

"We're going back to Iselia," Lloyd said. It was as though he meant to die there.

"We can't," said Raine in return, before stumbling on her tongue. "We just can't."

Genis thought for a while. It was all he had the energy left to do, and even from that he was weary. He thought about Exire, only he couldn't bear going back to that terrible place without his Chosen. He thought about peaceful Iselia and grey Meltokio and honest Mizuho and the lying mongrels in Belladem. He found himself hating humans again- he was no longer in the company of any, and had not been for a long time.

He was tired.

"Let's go back to Iselia," he said, surprising himself. "We have nothing left."

Lloyd looked at him with those angelic eyes that were suddenly weary. It reminded him of the lovely pink liar, but he hated to remember names of those who had passed on. Respect for the dead. Only those who live suffer.

They left the Tree behind in its singing sadness, calling out a single Riehard. Raine was in no condition to pilot a machine and Lloyd had long since given up such delicacies. With his big sister clutching his waist and leaving a cool wet spot on his shoulder, they made their sweet goodbyes.

They made it as far as the ruins of the Tower of Salvation- which, regrettably, wasn't that far- when Lloyd fell out of the sky.

It was though he had been shot by emotion. Genis had been watching the sky, feeling the patterns of clouds beating against his dear friend's wings when he heard a strangled sound almost like a howl of grief and the wings folded into themselves and disappeared. Raine cried out and clung miserably to his waist as he sent the machine into a nose-dive and left a stream of tears hanging in the sky.

They found him, mangled but alive, lying at the base of the Tower and staring up into the holy sky. The cloudless day was weeping for him without noise as the half-elves came to sit beside his corpse.

"Didn't think it would happen this way," he said as he put up a hand to shield his eyes from the sun, though backwards so as to watch his mother's exsphere lose the glow that sustained him. "You know? I thought that Colette and I would have some children, raise a family. Maybe invite Uncle Genis and Auntie Sheena over for dinner occasionally. Get everyone together. Maybe have a celebration once in a while- we united the worlds, Genis. It hit me a couple of days ago. Do you think that's what we were born to do?"

"No," mumbled Genis, "That wouldn't be fair."

"I could have lived a normal life in Iselia, graduate from school and become a craftsman like Dad. You know. Sheena could have stayed in her village, Zelos could have had his hunnies, and Regal could have run his company."

"You saved Presea. You saved all of us, Lloyd."

"Maybe saving people isn't enough. Kratos said it once- there are always those who reject salvation. What if four thousand years from now people choose to hurt themselves once again? Was I just like Mithos, foolishly trying to change what humans are?"

There were tears in places he didn't want them. "Lloyd, you never wanted-"

"Colette and Zelos never had children- the end of Sylvarant's mana lineage, and Tethe'alla's will go through Seles. Sheena had a daughter, I think, and Regal adopted a son. Wouldn't marry again. Gave him the mother's family name, Barklight. We should have given ourselves another generation."

"It's not your fault, Lloyd."

"I feel like it isn't enough, but I don't know what's left. All I am is the wielder of the Eternal Sword. I couldn't even protect Colette."

Genis pulled a stalk of wild grass from the ground and suddenly felt it grow dark. Lloyd paused for a while, tasting his tongue.

"The Great Seed was floating away. I felt so powerless- there was that feeling. I haven't felt it since then."

The moon eclipsed the sun.

"…I've forgotten how to lose hope," he said, and died.

x x x

When he died, it was as though the world had ended and a dragon had eaten the sun. The Eternal Sword sundered into three- Origin's hope, a dwarf's promise and a father's tears- and left to sleep for another four thousand years.

Genis watched the body dissolve to beads of light, and the moons Sylvarant and Tethe'alla left the sun.

_So must they all go_. Regal had died of guilt, prison had marked him. Presea had fallen under the emotion she was denied. Sheena of the duty she could never fulfill, Zelos of heartbreak that he had once chided. Colette died rejecting the blood of a Chosen. Lloyd was gone. He had died carrying the burden of a hero.

That was what the eight of them did best. They stood between the winds; eyes wide open in spite of the sun.

"Oh, Martel," sobbed Raine, and Genis knew her sanity would not survive the night. "Please- please don't let it all be wasted time-"

And Genis thought back to that conversation in the sacred forest of the Elves long ago. Watching the universe resume its course as though six people didn't matter, he could only wonder when the world would be so kind as to take him, too.

The long wait had come.

x x x


	6. Fate

**Epilogue:  
Fate  
**  
The Destiny of the Age and the Dreams of its People

x x x_  
_

"They were good people," she said. "_Good_ people."

The classroom was well-lit and spacious; outside, the sounds of the living were muted but steady like the heartbeat of the world.

"Let's recap what you know, or at least should know at this point. They themselves left us very little. We know there were either eight or nine of them that went on a great battle against the Forces of Hell to unite the two moons. Guided by the Earth Goddess Martel, they used the power of an ancient weapon to create the Tree that sustains us today."

It was a lecture hall, rather full, of the popular _History of the Search_. First-day class. Eager young adults in the front row leaned over their notebooks and scrawled down useless things such as _good people_ or _ancient weapon used to make Tree_. In the back row, five or six students gently slumbered in the peaceful morning warmth.

"Almost all of the information we know about them, save for what the scattered Elves and Half-Elves they had contact with later recounted, is from a single book." She held up a red, leather-bound novel. "I sincerely hope that all of you have picked up a copy, as it will be required for this course."

"Not _this_ jargon again," somebody in the fourth row whined to his neighbour just a little too loud. "You don't expect us to actually believe it, do you? It's all faith-based."

The teacher disregarded the interruption. "The original copy is kept by the Elves in their ancient city, though they have graciously allowed us to make a wide-spread print version for our use. Transcription and translation were preformed by a Half-Elf by the name of…"

Several more students packed up their books and tried to fall asleep.

Realizing that she was losing her students, she changed the topic to something more interesting and found her voice a little too indignant. "What they haven't taught you in pre-school is the circumstances surrounding the book. This is not a religious text- the people were real. The book was written by a Half-Elf genius who travelled with the Eight."

An uncomfortable hush, sweet as marzipan, settled over the hall like dust. A pencil dropped off of a table and the sound echoed in the deeps.

Satisfied with full attention from her students, she cleared her throat and continued. "His name is lost. We know him simply as 'Genius', as he never once recorded his own name. After he journeyed with his companions, he spent the last one hundred fifty years of his life collecting every detail surrounding those holy crusaders, from their births to the journey and to all of their terribly tragic deaths.

"_Kratos Aurion_- a mercenary of holy origins who left with a heavenly power.

"_Regal Bryant_- the president of the perceived mythical Lazareno Company, who died from blood poisoning from rusted shackles.

"_Presea Combatir_- a woodcutter from the ancient city Ozette, who died of an aneurysm related to Crystal Rejection, brought on by a large incursion of the emotion 'despair'.

"_Sheena Fujibayashi_, whose bloodline as successor to the ninja clan which lives in the Ymir Forest still continues today; death was caused by sabotage- zirconium dust dissolved in drinking water.

"_Zelos Wilder_- a noble from a city once known as Meltokio who died of causes unknown, though Genius relates his death to causes similar to that which took Presea.

"_Colette Brunel_- the Last Chosen of Mana, who died of Acute Chronic Angelus Crystallus Inofficium due to an influx of free energy from the great Tree.

"_Lloyd Irving-_ a commoner of sanctified blood, hero of the Sacred Green Water, whose death is only recorded as 'that of a great man'. There are hints buried in the text that his life was prolonged by the strength of his will and left him when that will ceased to be.

"_Raine Sage_- the greatest archaeologist and scholar of her time, who died the same day as Lloyd Irving of madness in the highest degree. Genius records that she slit her throat with a page torn from a diary, though the verity of this is disputed.

"These, of course, are the barest details of who these people were. For tonight, I require a two-page summary of the life of one of the eight up until they joined the journey, to be researched from the book. Genius may not be used. Stop _groaning_, you are not children anymore."

Her voice lowered, and her eyes lost their cold edge. "Genius wrote that despite their differences, it took very little time to become a single unit, struggling forward in spite of the sun. He compares their love and bond to one another to a symphony- once one of them left the land of the living, it was only a matter of time until the other instruments ceased to be able to create music. Perhaps it is for this reason that he named his records as the 'Tales of Symphonia'."

Heavy with the burden of new knowledge, the students filed out slowly, chattering expressionlessly.

"They were _good_ people." Her whispered voice filled the room, empty but for a man clad in purple whose journey had spanned two thousand years. "And it's too bad that they're all dead."

x x x

_/end_


	7. Star's End

**Appendix:  
Star's End**

x x x

Six thousand years after he was born to a mother and father he had long forgotten, Kratos Aurion was ready to die.

Just like the heroes he had dreamed of in better days, once his mind knew it, his body followed. Pieces of him stalled for aeons by blasphemous spells were wearing thin. His body had grown pale and bony, long shadows appearing under his cheekbones. The blood-red hair that Anna had fallen in love with was turning, like seasons, white as snow. He felt hunger and thirst and age creeping up on him once again.

"We weren't really meant for this world," Yuan said.

"We never were," Kratos responded, and he meant it. "We shouldn't be here."

It wasn't fair, or right, but it was the truth. He should have died before his son. But here he was, living out every parent's nightmare- outliving the family he had loved.

A gentle wind picked up and stirred the grass beneath the Great Tree. He remembered seeing it born out of his son's great hands; for the first time since Martel had wept and died, he had found tears in his eyes. Even now it seemed almost too beautiful for words.

Or perhaps everything seemed more beautiful now that he was at the end of his life.

"How was it?" Yuan turned his head towards Kratos, his ears now better tuned to the sounds of the land of the dead then the land of the living. "Did you find what you were looking for?"

"No." Kratos peeled off a glove and touched the tips of his fingers to the bark of the Tree. "I think what I was looking for was here all that time. No matter how much I searched, I always found myself looking back to my own heart."

Two thousand years of looking after the Tree had made Yuan patient. "Have you read it? The book, I mean."

"I glanced through it. Imagine what the two of us could contribute to it now- but they would never believe us. I attended a lecture on it and even the professor could not speak with certainty."

The sounds of nighttime covered their echoing heartbeats, and Kratos looked up out of habit. The sight of the two moons both startled and comforted him.

"The world has come full circle," Yuan mused, removing his own glove. "We aren't needed anymore."

"Derris-Kharan will die in two thousand years without my mana." In the upper branches of the Tree, a goddess cloaked in green hummed an old tune.

"Derris-Kharan? You're missing an L. I didn't think you were so emotional, Kratos."

It may have been humorous, but it was the only human left in the dying angel.

"The only thing that could save them is a mana seed. If anything, it will drive them to protect the Tree should it ever be in danger again."

They both knew better, of course. The blood of heroes ran thin in this world, but so does air in the heavens. And when the world needed heroes they would rise again. Like a phoenix from its ashes, the sword of eternity would wait forever if it needed to; twenty, two hundred, two thousand years were moments of time in infinity.

As long as there is a road, there will be dreamers.

"And so it ends," Yuan sighed, pressing a palm flat to the tree. "Funny. There are so many things that I would have done differently, but I have no regrets. There's no other way I'd rather be going than with all of you."

"Blame your fate," Kratos said, doing the same. "We never were anything but a living will."

There was a flash of light, and then nothing for a long time.

x x x 

"They were beautiful children," Martel said.

"And how," Mithos Yggdrassil, the Great Tree, murmured.

* * *

_The End  
_

* * *

_Thanks so much for reading Will. It is now exactly one year and a handful of days after I started it, and I feel a little better now._

_I hope you do too.  
_


End file.
